Rape trauma as barrier to pregnancy has no scientific basis

August 20, 2012|Reuters

It may occur with greater frequency than after consensualsex. Indeed, evolutionary psychologists - who seek to explainhuman behavior by imagining what actions might have helped ourancient ancestors survive and reproduce - say the reason rapehas been so endemic throughout history is precisely because itoften leads to pregnancy: men who commit that crime, goes theargument, were more likely to have progeny, passing along their"rape genes" to the next generation.

While the explanation for rape has been discredited, thefact that rape often leads to pregnancy has not been. In a 2003study in the journal Human Nature, researchers found that 6.4percent of rapes in the hundreds of women they surveyed causedpregnancy; that compares to a rate roughly half that withconsensual intercourse. In Mexico, rape crisis centers havereported that some 15 percent of rapes cause pregnancy.

The rate may be high because rape victims are less likely tobe using contraception at the time of the crime than are womenin a relationship, who can also choose to forego sex duringfertile periods in their reproductive cycle if they do not wantto conceive.